25 years later: Fixing the Hubble Space Telescope
Twenty-five years ago today, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched. The images it has been sending back to Earth for all these years have become iconic, and yet it came very close to being a billion dollar failure. One of the heroes who rescued Hubble from ruin and made it a great science success story is Rochester optics professor Duncan Moore.
New approach uses “twisted light” to increase the efficiency of quantum cryptography systems
Rochester researchers and their collaborators have developed a way to transfer 2.05 bits per photon by using “twisted light.” The new approach doubles the 1 bit per photon that is possible with current systems that rely on light polarization and could help increase the efficiency of quantum cryptography systems.
Generating Möbius strips of light
A collaboration between researchers from Canada, Europe, and Rochester has experimentally produced Möbius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light’s electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape.
Laser-generated surface structures create extremely water-repellent metals
Scientists at the Institute of Optics have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings.
Qiang Lin receives inaugural Leonard Mandel Faculty Fellow Award
Qiang Lin, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and of optics, has been named the first Leonard Mandel Faculty Fellow. The award, which includes a two-year, $25,000 stipend, recognizes exceptional achievement by a junior faculty member in coherence and quantum optics.
Salute to University’s veterans
Financial economics major Mark Constable ’16 is one of more than 80 military veterans currently enrolled as students at the University. This Veterans Day, we recognize and honor the commitment of our students, faculty, and staff who serve or have served in our nation’s armed services, and share just a few of their stories.
Researchers send electricity, light along same super-thin wire
A new combination of materials can efficiently guide electricity and light along the same tiny wire, a finding that could be a step towards building computer chips capable of transporting digital information at the speed of light.
Doing more with less: New technique efficiently finds quantum wave functions
University researchers have introduced a new method, called compressive direct measurement, that allowed the team to reconstruct a quantum state at 90 percent fidelity using only a quarter of the measurements required by previous methods.
Duality principle is “safe and sound”: Researchers clear up apparent violation of quantum mechanics’ wave-particle duality
When scientists in Germany announced in 2012 an apparent violation of a fundamental law of quantum mechanics, The results were both “strange” and “incredible.” It took Robert Boyd and his colleagues nearly a year and a half to figure out what was going on.
Like summer camp … for subatomic particles
Optical engineering major Sarah Bjornland ’19 (left) uses a telescope to study resolution versus pupil size with local high school students Justin Shetty, Tyler Acton, and Dan Duguay. During Photon Camp, a week-long effort by the Institute of Optics to introduce more students to the growing field of optics, high school upperclassmen work with University undergrads to learn about the relevance of optics to everyday life.